Daily Archives: May 3, 2016

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Happy Wednesday! Despite the fact that it is 12:15 a.m. on May 4, – the little calendar day on my blog by the title says it’s May 3! Clearly I’ve fallen into a black hole somewhere but trust me – it really is May 4.

I am so pleased and honored to again be a part of the Quiltmaker 100 Blocks blog tour. Be sure to check out the Quiltmaker Quilty Pleasures blog for a full list of everyone on the blog tour this week and links to their blogs. You can order your own print or digital copy of the magazine at the online shop.

This is my seventh block to be published in 100 Blocks and finding out a block has been accepted for publication is just as exciting today as when the first block was accepted. It is Block No. 1246 and it’s called “Turkey Tracks.”

This is the photo of the block I made and submitted to Quiltmaker. Turkey Tracks is a continuation of a series of bird block designs I’ve worked on over the past couple years – some of which have appeared in previously 100 Blocks issues and Quilts From 100 Blocks. I use Electric Quilt software for all my quilting designs. So after getting my block drawn, tweaking things a bit, getting the correct size — it was off to the stash.

I knew I wanted to use batik fabrics for this block and I had a fat quarter of the tail fabric and the colored border fabric set aside for a while to use for something special. I just love the color combination of the grays, pinky-corals and golds in those fabrics. So grabbed those and then chose the other fabrics to go with them and I was ready.

Turkey Tracks is a predominately paper pieced block with some traditional piecing to finish it off. Even if you’ve never done any paper piecing, I think you’ll have great success with this one since there’s no real small pieces. I would suggest staying away from a one-way design background fabric tho since it is paper pieced – unless you don’t mind your one way fabric going every which way.

I think this turkey is strutting along proudly. He reminds me of the flock of seven of them that more than once have stood defiantly in the middle of the road (yes, I do live in a city) making my bus to work wait until they (the turkeys) decided it was a good idea to get out of the middle of the road — and in case you are wondering, turkeys do not make up their mind to be cooperative very quickly and they really don’t respond to a bus driver standing in the doorway of the bus yelling “shoo, shoo” at them (although all the usual morning passengers do respond to that by laughing a lot!) 🙂

I decided I wanted to make this block into a table runner or wall hanging and will share that information so you can make your own version of it (of course the sizing of the wall hanging will work with any 12″ finished / 12.5″ unfinished quilt block inserted as the center design).

Here’s the EQ setting design I came up with. I wanted something very simple and since I was using fall colors, my favorite leaf shape had to be included.

After looking at the design above, I decided I wanted to use an alternate layout of that version for myself to make it as a vertical wall hanging. My desk at work has a partial fabric covered cubicle wall and hanging vertically it will be the perfect size to hang in that space.

As I was looking through my pile of batiks, I decided since I’d already made the block once in fall colors, this time I’d try something different (even tho fall colors are my favorite). I pulled some favorite batiks –

and thought…

“hmmm…. turkeys are not blue” – not that that would necessarily be a deterrent to me. And in the end it wasn’t – I decided that if done in blue, the turkey would sort of look like a peacock strutting along – so blue feathers it was!

Here’s my vertical layout version – time got away from me so I haven’t had a chance to quilt it yet.

Now you may notice a couple of things different in my version versus the fall-colored version. The same cutting instructions apply to both orientations so you can easily decide which way you want yours to be. I haven’t added the leaves to mine and I think I may just machine quilt a wide feather pattern in some lovely bright variegated thread across the areas where the applique would go. And for those of you who are very observant – I goofed!

At the top and bottom ends, my fabrics are reversed in the flying geese border blocks. I have my lighter fabric in the triangle shapes at the very edge of the wall hanging, rather than the darker fabric at the outermost edge as show in the fall-colored version. It is a design element I planned, right? Or could it be that I sewed that thin strip that goes next to those pieces on the wrong end (the edge of the dark triangles). I, of course, did that very thing to not just one section but to both sections. When I noticed it, after possibly muttering a few bad words, I was diligent and ripped off that thin strip in order to correct it. Several days passed before I got back to working on it and I did the EXACT SAME THING sewing that strip to the WRONG SIDE OF BOTH YET AGAIN!! Good grief. That was when I decided I really LOVED the lighter fabric at the very top and bottom edges (or maybe I decided no way no how was I ripping it off again). I could have reversed the fabric colors in the EQ images above or told you I “intentionally” reversed those fabrics in my second version and you never would have known I couldn’t follow my own instructions. But this way you can see how it looks with both darker and lighter fabrics along the edge, right? Just more options to choose from.

If you want to download the instructions for the wall hanging (the Turkey Tracks block is not included – you need the magazine for that) you can download thePDF file here

If you would like to win a copy of this latest issues of 100 Blocks,Updated: Drawing has been concluded. Winners announced in next blog post.

Good luck and thank you for visiting with me on the blog tour.

Denise ~ Justquiltin

PLEASE NOTE – if the pdf download does not work for you, it’s because of the traffic from the blog tour with people downloading it before you – so simply try again later, or tomorrow, or next week or next month – you get the idea. The link will remain available for you to download indefinitely so if it gives you an error, please come back and try again later because the link is working….really…… it just may be “overwhelmed” when you try.

Judy at Patchwork Timesand I like so many of the same knitting patterns and had been emailing back and forth about wanting to make theStained Glass Cowl pattern by Wendy D. Johnson which is available on Ravelry.

The letters “KAL” might have been included in those emails between Judy and I (for any non-knitters or newbie knitters that stands for Knit A-Long). It’s always more fun to work on a project where others are working on the same thing, especially since Judy and I live too far apart to sit together and sip margaritas and knit together. (okay if we started sipping – there’d be very little knitting but it would be fun!). My favorite part of KALs are seeing all the color choices / yarn choices other people have made. Many times I will see yarns I never knew existed (probably safer for my pocketbook if I never knew they existed), colors used together that I might never have thought of doing, and if you get stuck, someone else in the group may be able to answer a question.

So, Judy contacted Wendy to make sure she was okay with our hosting a KAL on our blogs – and she was – so we are – and we hope you’ll join us. Otherwise when you see all the finished cowls you’ll be wondering why you didn’t join in in the first place. Judy has listed some of the additional specifics you need to know about this pattern in order to decide if you want to KAL with us which I won’t repeat all that here. Please go to her blog at the Patchwork Times link at the top of the page for more info.

Of course a couple things I will repeat — (1) Start date is September 1 so you have all summer to figure out your yarn choices. (2) There will be prizes, but if you win in order to receive your prize you need to have a Ravelry account. The accounts are free, they’re easy to set up, they don’t spam you with email, and if you knit or crochet – they are such an incredible resource. (3) You will also need to purchase the pattern through Ravelry. Again – really easy to do. Set your account up first before purchasing and it will save the pattern into your Ravelry account so you can print it but a copy always remains in your account to access at any time.

Prior to starting we’ll be sharing some additional blog posts regarding yarn choices, or what you may want to consider in making yarn choices, and other tidbits of information which you may find useful. There’s a video I love which I used to learn “two handed” fair isle knitting – one yarn in each hand. I love knitting that way and the video was so easy to follow along with – so I’ll be sharing the link again to that as well – tho it’s not necessary to knit this project that way. Neither of us profess to have any special knowledge – other than knowing what has worked for us or failed for us in past projects.

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